The March Top 10 Songs playlist was crazy difficult to determine because of the flood of new tracks from already dropped and upcoming anticipated album releases, including artists and bands like Kurt Vile; Yard Act; Eades; Arcade Fire; Yak; Bodega; Andrew Bird; The Smile and Gruff Rhys.
Because it’s such a challenge to pick only ten songs a month, we’re also sharing our Top 50 Indie Songs for March 2022. Check that one out too and you’ll see what we mean. Simply too much exciting and kick-ass tunes coming at us these days from all directions.
But, still, we managed to squeek out our top 10 picks from all of the songs that dropped in March. ENjoy and please share to spread some love and give us a bit of inspiration juice for further playlists.
Finally: if you really love specially-curated playlists that hit on themes from world countries and VIP names to popular holiday playlists and other themes ranging from Best Roots Rock Revival; Top 2022 Post-Punk Songs (So Far); Cover Songs playlists and many more. We’d love to have you follow and share. If just great music is all you care about, let us feed you the works we’ve labored so many years to perfect.
Without further delay, let’s dive in:
Looking to stream more kick-ass tracks dropped in March from popular indie/alt artists and bands as well as small-label, lesser-known and DIY artists/bands, fire up Best 2022 Indie/Alt Rock, Vol. III.
Don’t have a Spotify premium account and prefer to listen on YouTube?
Fast and furious. That’s how anticipated, and widely-acclaimed, albums from indie rockers have been pouring out of the spout.
The year started off with a bang. Top releases for January spawned enough singles to easily fill up the top ten indie songs playlists. The top ten indie rock songs for January features new and hot singles from Band of Horses; Yard Act; Animal Collective; Beach House; Black Country, New Road; Fontaines DC; The Wombats; Beirut; Broken Social Scene and Metronomy.
And just like that – another month has passed (good, closer to spring!). There were so many additional new singles and tracks from albums that dropped in February that it made it a challenge to pick out just 10.
As a result, the Ten 10 Indie Songs for February 2020 include keeper-singles from Dehd, Spoon, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Kurt Vile, Foals, Elf Power, Jack White, PUP, Frank Turner, and Big Thief.
Top Ten Indie Rock Songs – February 2022 (YOUTUBE)
Top 10 Indie Rock Songs – February 2022 (SOUNDCLOUD)
A blockbuster year for album releases, 2021 is quickly coming to a close as we head in to 2022 – lots of 2’s.
From those releases have spawned a series of popular singles that make-up the last Top 10 Indie Songs playlist of the year. They include singles (and the albums) from Psychedelic Porn Crumpets; Snail Mail; Elbow; The KVB; Blake Rose; Richard Dawson/Circle; IDLES; Tonstartssbandht; Bakar and Clairo.
The sequence of the tracks is not a hard (but close) placement because we might feel like No. 4 is No. 2 in a week from now; or, again, for example, if No. 8 went up to No. 5, etc. It’s more like – these are our favorite ten tracks of the month – mostly from albums dropped during December.
That’s another reason that sequencing the tracks in a one to ten order would be skewed anyways because many of the top tracks on an album are dropped months earlier.
NOTE: We’ll be posting the Top 10 DIY Songs, December 2021 playlist in the next couple of days.
If you want to submit your own music, we’d be glad to give it a listen (as long as it falls within our genre-scope). Enjoy and please share/like/follow if you wish.
November was not just a great month for regular single releases and album drops from more ‘mainstream’ and well-known indie/alt/rock/pop artists and bands, but also for DIY tracks submitted to us that most people haven’t heard.
If these DIY singles, skimmed from hundreds of submissions, did not have something interesting, redeeming or exciting about them, they’d never make our Top 10.
Don’t miss the Top 10 Indie Songs November 2021, featuring Holly Humberstone, Snail Mail, Black Marble, Courtney Barnett, Ovlov and Matt Pond PA, among others.
For the most part, we base our DIY picks mainly on what is submitted to us throughout the year. Sometimes it’ll be months after we first start listening to a song that it grows on us (or holds up as much as the first few exciting listens) – or weeks or months since the official release – and we become convinced of its place on the top of our DIY lists.
Of course, there are plenty of songs that we know right away whether we dig them or not.
Every song has been chosen for one good reason or another – it just feels/sounds good; the lyrics are impressive; the total production of the track is noteworthy; it has a hook; the song is a preview of an artist or band to watch, or all of them combined into one powerful track.
The one to ten format is not necessarily meant to be scientific or even decisive – it’s more of a loose assocation but we think the order is pretty solid.
* label-associated and/or ‘popular’/well-known
In This Installment of the Top 10 DIY Songs, November 2021:
#1 – Barrie BROOKLYN, New York
#2 – Cloud Vincent LONDON, England
#3 – RVST PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil
#4 – Drive NEW CASTLE, England
#5 – Dear Other STEUBENVILLE, Ohio
#6 – Atlantic Canyons MANCHESTER, New Hampshire
#7 – Remote Control RICHMOND, Virginia
#8 – Adam Stall COLDWATER, Ohio
#9 – Jarod Grice DENTON, Texas
#10 – Jared Rabin CHICAGO, Illinois
#1 – “Frankie” – Barrie
BROOKLYN, New York
Indie enthusiasts may – or may not – be familiar with Brooklyn indie band Barrie. For the past few years, the band has been ‘band to watch’ favorites for many blogs, especially thanks to singles like “Canyons” and “Drag” and 2019’s “Dig,” – Barrie’s last single until now.
The band’s latest drop is the melodic single “Frankie” swirling synths and a driving hook. Check out the video above.
According to the band, “Frankie” was inspired by songwriting legend Glen Campbell.
“Glen Campbell had just died and the radio was playing ‘Wichita Lineman.’ It felt relevant to the social justice movements at the moment, to the push for democratic socialism, or at least a rejection of capitalism and where it’s gotten us,” Barrie explains in a statement.
“The Wichita Lineman has a shitty oppressive job that isolates and overworks him, as many Americans do, and instead of feeling outraged on his behalf we honor and lionize his commitment to labor. The song is a great litmus test. People either find the character really heroic and noble, or find the whole situation sad and fuk’d.”
#2 – “Can You Get Over Him?” – Cloud Vincent
LONDON, England
“Can You Get Over Him?” is for people who love a bit of indie, pop, and rock, with some singing/rapping, and an infectious groove. The song focuses on this summer sound, while detailing a story of a new relationship.
The single comes byway of Cloud Vincent a 23-year-old musician born in the U.S. and currently based in the U.K.
His sound revolves around catchy cheeky lyricism and warm vibes – “for sunny days with an indie-pop take on capturing summer nostalgia.” This new track is the first single from his upcoming 2022 EP.
#3 – “My Violent Friend” – RVST
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil
The powerful powerpop anthem ‘My Violent Friend” from Brazilian band RVST delivers a catchy and contagious chorus with a theme that ” celebrates the taking of the streets and the fight between the distorted views imposed by ultra-conservative rulers.”
RVST is the cryptic rubric that has been around the few rock venues and music-friendly spaces in Porto Alegre, Brazil, since 2015. Idealized as Rust Costa Machado’s solo project, the singer-songwriter has dedicated his efforts to tiny-lenght minialbuns (EPs, if you will), where he finds room the creations of his short trajectory.
Whether for his manipulation of duo vocals, on the combination of nostalgic and fresh melodic designs, or on the employment of the second language (English, the one he works with, as a teacher for Brazilians), RVST presents on his discography an original style of making the music he loves – ambitious, universal, yet bedroom pop.
Spot somewhere between the solemn and visceral, his third release Electrified dropped in October.
facebook.com/rvstmusic
#4 – “The Rain” – Drive
NEW CASTLE, England
The nostalgia-tinged single, “The Rain,” from the 80’s-influenced New Castle, England duo of Jake Fletcher and Andy Bell is “an 80s-inspired track reminiscent of some of our favourite coming-of-age movie soundtracks.
“It’s about coming of age in a small town which no one really gets out of,” Bell adds.
On FB, the duo announced: “‘The Rain’ is out now!! This is the first song we wrote as Drive and really think it captures who we are as a band.”
Influences include The 1975, Arcade Fire, Bleachers and “anything remotely 80s sounding.”
facebook.com/drivethebandofficial
#5 – “Houses Hallowed” – Dear Other
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio
“Houses Hallowed” is the lead single from Ohio indie rock/lo-fi folk band Dear Other‘s latest release "The Wizard Clip.", a recording that explores a 1794 exorcism in West Virginia.
“The Wizard Clip addresses dead friends, eternal life, and the ghosts we live with,” the band said in a statement, adding “House Hallowed” was “recorded in the attic of Marc and Marua Barnes, the vocalists for the track, on a Tascam 4-Track. This song is an apocryphal summary of the text, exploring our relationship to the other, to the poor.”
“Our music tends to be folkloric throughout, blending elements of indie rock, folk, lo-fi, with catchy hooks throughout tying it all together”
facebook.com/DearOther
#6 – “One More Minute” – Atlantic Canyons
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire
New Hampshire indie band Atlantic Canyons recently achieved the “number one most added EP” – See The Hue – on The North American College & Community Radio Charts. Behind the moniker is Andrea Levesque and apparently unnamed band members (unless she’s a one-girl band?).
Anyways, the top track, “One More Minute,” from the EP is dreamy, lush, and perfect musical soundscape for Fall.
“It bears witness to feelings of fear and loneliness, and there is catharsis in acknowledging unpleasant emotions,” she reveals. “By allowing myself the freedom to experience these feelings without judgment, I became unburdened by them.”
A fiery passion for playing music was lit within Levesque in childhood as she learned to play piano and violin.
“I really love feeling a sense of personal connection when the music resonates with other people,” Levesque shares. See The Hue is Levesque’s debut EP, written, recorded, and produced in her rural New Hampshire home. She constructed her project remotely with the help of some session musicians she met in online music chat rooms.
OK GO drummer Dan Konopka mastered the album, adding the finishing touches before the release. Orchestral elements combine with delicate vocal melodies, ethereal harmonies, and frequent lyrical references to the ocean.
Virginia indie band Remote Control began at the start of the pandemic and thus, their first batch of songs are influenced by pandemic-related issues.
The new single, “Blow For Blow,” is a “reflection on the futulity of arguing with people online in the way that we have seen recently,” says band member Bob Spires. “The song is a self-critique of the trap we all sometimes fall into.”
While the band calls its headquarters Richmond, Virginia, band members come from the Richmond, Philly and Athens (Georgia) music scenes: Spires (the Possibilities, Nutria, Jack Logan band); Nick Bergheimer (Sea of Storms, Landmines, Volunteer); Casey Martin (Sixer, Landmines) and Adam Caldwell (Fire in the Radio).
The band combines punk, garage, rock, and indie sensibilities with a classic two guitar, bass and drums setup.
Although it’s been touch and go for live events over the past nearly two years, Spires says the band loves the “fast, hard, loud, heavy, rocking, punky, poppy or catchy bands” they see play “as they combine all of those elements into a hybrid eclectic style. With a song by Remote Control, you can expect loud guitars, bashing drums and catchy vocals and lyrics.”
#8 – “Two Beaches” – Adam Stall
COLDWATER, Ohio
“Two Beaches” is the second track from Ohio artist Adam Stall‘s independently produced debut EP.
“A love song of everlasting and longing faith and hope, inspired by the picking patterns of John Denver and dramatic transitions of classical music,” he writes. ” Alternative rock with classic rock influences, an emphasis on vocals and bass guitar.”
His hometown of Coldwater Ohio, surrounded by friends and family playing music Stall is trained in classical piano and trumpet and is now a “fully realized, independent musical effort utilizing all my past experiences and influences.”
An upbringing with the legends of the 60’s and 70’s, classical music, and the blues influenced with antique flavors, but the production and soul behind the music is striving for a new and accessible sound of rock.
facebook.com/stallmusic
#9 – “Weary Hands” – Jarod Grice
DENTON, Texas
“Weary Hands ” is the first track from Texas musician Jarod Grice‘s forthcoming album, Cradle the Songbird, which debuts in March 2022.
“The song is about struggling with your own brokenness,” says producer Chris Howell. “It starts out with the idea of feeling worn down like a rusty machine…and moves into the realization of seeing that brokenness rooted in a common birthplace. We’re all being called back to the dust; we all struggle like our fathers/mothers/generations before us.
“This type of imagery haunts many of the songs on the new album, which will most likely find an audience among the indie rock/Americana crowd.”
The band members are: Jarod Grice – vocals, acoustic guitar, keys, songwriter; Bill Campbell – drums; Paul Alexander – bass and Joseph McClellan – electric guitars.
facebook.com/jarodgricemusic/
#10 – “Cold Rain and Snow” – Jared Rabin
CHICAGO, Illinois
Jared Rabin‘s arrangement of the traditional song "Cold Rain and Snow," the title track from the new album released this year is painted with down-home Americana bluegrass colors.
The album is Rabin’s first all-acoustic record and follows 2020’s acclaimed No Direction.
The album is a mix of bluegrass standards and "New Grass" originals and finds Jared playing all of the instruments (save for drums) and handling a majority of the vocals.
The Top 10 Indie Songs for November 2021 highlights the best, and most popular, singles from some of November’s best album releases – and from 2021 in general.
Over the past few months, many of these singles have had time to really make the rounds on millions of speakers and buds. They include releases from MUNYA, Matt Pond PA; Ovlov; Holly Humberstone; Black Marble; The Flaming Lips and Nell Smith; Courtney Barnett; Snail Mail; Deap Vally with jennylee and Gov’t Mule.
Since we love so many of the songs in the Top 10, selecting the No.1 track is almost impossible.
Therefore, we are going to default and use Spotify’s number of recorded plays to rank these tracks – which were already going to make our Top 10 for the month regardless of the number of plays.
From that batch of tracks (which can be dozens), the number of plays helps whittle it down to ten tracks and to make more sense of a playlist that would otherwise be ten fresh songs in no particularly helpful order.
It’s up to you to choose which of our top 10 tracks you dig the most. D
Listen to the previous months’ Top 10 Songs playlists to discover more talented artists and bands from across the globe.
Number of Streams at Publish Time
12.8M holly 3.8M snail mail 3.4M court 500K govt mule 432K marble 372K deep 296k muny 219K lips 162K ovlov 3.9K matt
The Top 10 Indie Songs for October 2021 focuses exclusively on singles from recommended albums that dropped officially in October, including those from more ‘mainstream’ indie/alt/rock artists and bands.
This playlist features tracks from Hovvdy; Tonstartssbandht; POND; The War on Drugs; Boy Scouts; Lana Del Rey; My Morning Jacket; Fire-Toolz; Magdelena Bay and Porches.
If you missed any of this year’s Top 10 playlists, you can access them any time on the Top 10 Songs page.
Swedish indie sensation Melpo Mene tops IRC’s February Top 10 Songs
This Top 10 Indie Songs playlist for February 2021 is perhaps one of our favorite top 10 song playlists of the past year, and we had just said the same about the January Top 10 Indie Songs playlist (recommended listening!).
The staff at IRC has shared and listened to these tracks (and many others that didn’t make the cut) over and over again. We agree that not only are these tracks our favorite 10 songs from February but still will be among the top 2021 indie tracks by the time the end-of-year playlists come out.
IRC chooses tracks carefully. We listen for songs that are original, different, heartfelt, well-crafted, and of course, brimming with talent from new, or newly discovered, indie bands and artists from around the USA and the world. (See below for our mini-reviews of each track). March Top 10 Songs is coming up soon.
The Top 10 Indie Rock Songs, Feb. 2021
1. Our No. 1 track for February goes to Swedish musician Melpo Mene (new aka is ‘heyMelpo’). IRC has been a big fan of Mene going all of the way back to our earliest years posting about under-the-radar DIY/small label artists. The first time we heard Mene it was a tiny miracle – “wow, who the bleep is this?”, we inquired. That amazing, totally – totally – original voice, and sweeping atmospheric melodic hooks are back with this new energized and uplifting single, “Wrong At Last.”
2. A sparse, somber acoustic ballad from DIY indie outfit Three Day Monk with soft, hauntingly beautiful vocals; light drum beats, swirling flutes; one of the most original and raw lo-fi indie tracks of 2021
3. Iyarkai‘s “Rijul Chakraborthy” is a transformative, soaring, dream-like track with faint eastern influences set to new-age-like instrumentations and sound effects that include chirping birds, flutes, and slight touches of auto-tune. It’s almost impossible not to be touched by this track.
4. This is the first track we’d ever heard from the Dutch indie band Elephant and it hit us right in the heart and ears. this is a song you feel, and there’s even a little bit of a BeeGees vibe to this terrifically melodic and upbeat track.
5. not a fourth of july song in the way you’d expect – but Victims of the New Math (VOTNM) deliver quiet, slumbering, light strum on guitar with filtered, almost distant vocals and featuring a neat little acoustic duel (don’t jump!)
6. DWP with their minimalistic recording approach – love it! – ground together with pulsating keys and dual guitar jams paralleled with spoken vocals – think The Fall but with a strange and ominous dance element added in (#1 or 2)
7. “The Other End” is an uplifting single from indie-rock collective Solar Strides. This track sonically combines the nostalgic with the contemporary, as the record brims with foot-tapping, spirited instrumentals and features the crystal clear vocals of India Foskett.
8 “Wasted” from UK DIY band Colour Tongues‘ debut album insinuates a negativity that the lyrics, dream-pop vibe, and melodies completely knockdown. Song lyrics reminisce of realizing one’s own self-worth and self-love, and that there is no time ever again to be ‘wasted’ on anyone.
9. Short but booming full-throttle rock with a garage/punk edge, shouted (but works) catchy chorus, and streetwise attitude from the alt. rock band Harker.
10 – Weezer’s “All My Favorite Songs” is a solid track but it’s a bit too commercially slanted so it goes down a few notches to the end here for the former indie veterans now mainly commercial sellouts.
Indie rock band Tearjerker is a band to watch in 2021. Photo by X.D. Aniel
We are late to get the first couple of 2021 Top 10 Indie Songs playlists together – mostly to pick the best indie songs from a flood of solid singles and albums dropped in the first couple of months of the new year.
The IRC team is glad that we took extra time to really whittle down hundreds of indie rock songs to come out with only the best of the best.
There is also a fair amount of tracks that we classify as more alternative rock than indie rock. You can probably figure out which are which – but to us, they are closely-aligned genres in many ways.
This Top 10 playlist is filled with powerful, intriguing, different, and must-hear indie songs and bands – some of which will be familiar and others new to many of you. We are really excited to share these top indie songs of 2021 in the playlist below.
*February and March 2021 Top 10 Indie Songs playlists are coming out this week! Please share and like.
January 2021 Top 10 Indie Songs
By the way, we have a ton of interesting playlists on Spotify, but we prefer not to point you there. Spotify is not fair to artists and bands so we don’t encourage using it.
Plus, it’s a pain in the ass as a free user, and not too much better as a paid user. We are Soundcloud, YouTube, and Bandcamp fans here – the platforms that are good for and to independent musicians and bands.
Just click once and let it roll through all ten tracks uninterrupted and commercial-free. Below you’ll hear fresh tracks from bands (including indie bands that are now, for all intent nad purposes, mainstream indie) like Grouplove, Tearjerker, PEEL, and Wilderado as well as tunes from lesser-known and DIY artists and bands like Alex Walton, O Cerne, Sonar Red, Jimso Slim, NXTIME, and Up! Way Up! Enjoy and please like and share. We appreciate you.
Stream commercial-free from 12 Top 10 2020 Indie Songs playlists – gooood stuff.
J. Mascis Soap&Skin Deerhunter Worn-Tin Drug Church Laura Jane Grace and The Devouring Mothers Bill Ryder-Jones Chandler Marriott The Good, The Bad & The Queen
Molino – Amsterdam, The Netherlands The Women of the Night – Brooklyn, New York The Flusters – Palm Desert, California Mikey Mike – Hollywood, California Para Lia – Cottbus, Germany Le Corbeau – Oslo, Norway Fornis – Sacramento, California Tapes and Tubes – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Wax Statues – San Francisco, California James Waves – Chicago, Illinois Telamor – Boston, Massachusetts Daniel Doorman – Toronto, Ontario Joel Strauss – Kelowna, British Columbia
I’m No Chessman – Bournemouth, England Little Birds – Stockholm, Sweden PV & The Heheheee’s – Bergen, Norway Catherine Michelle – Austin, Texas PinnedCrooks – Tehran, Iran
Band of Dust – Milwaukee, Wisconsin The Cold Seas – Ashbury Park, New Jersey Alvie & The Breakfast Pigs – San Francisco, California MILO – Zwolle, The Netherlands Ragman’s Daughter – London, England
The Rassle – Austin, Texas Max Goedecke – Cologne, Germany Linnea Krepper – Zoetermeer, The Netherlands Moonshifter – Melbourne, Australia FM Band – Nashville, Tennessee The Sleeping Tongues – Brooklyn, New York
Thunderbird – Vancouver, British Columbia KG Morris – Denver, Colorado Victims of the New Math – Phoenix-Charlotte Parker Moore – Oakland, California Tom Harrison – Los Angeles, California
